David Armitage is Professor of History at Harvard University.

More so than the Constitution…the Declaration has also become a global document, a piece of intellectual and political common property that has transcended the circumstances of its creation and perhaps even the intentions of its authors. Surprisingly, this afterlife has not received systematic and ‘global’ treatment by historians, and David Armitage is to be congratulated on his concise and well-written study of the Declaration as, to use his own words, ‘an event, a document, and the beginning of a genre.’ He shows that it was first and foremost an ‘international’ document, driven by the need to establish the legitimacy of the united colonies within the state-system and thus their right to conclude alliances against Britain.

• Introduction 1. The World in the Declaration of Independence 2. The Declaration of Independence in the World 3. A World of Declarations Conclusion Notes Acknowledgments Index

David Armitage is Professor of History at Harvard University.

More so than the Constitution…the Declaration has also become a global document, a piece of intellectual and political common property that has transcended the circumstances of its creation and perhaps even the intentions of its authors. Surprisingly, this afterlife has not received systematic and ‘global’ treatment by historians, and David Armitage is to be congratulated on his concise and well-written study of the Declaration as, to use his own words, ‘an event, a document, and the beginning of a genre.’ He shows that it was first and foremost an ‘international’ document, driven by the need to establish the legitimacy of the united colonies within the state-system and thus their right to conclude alliances against Britain.

• Introduction 1. The World in the Declaration of Independence 2. The Declaration of Independence in the World 3. A World of Declarations Conclusion Notes Acknowledgments Index

David Armitage is Professor of History at Harvard University.

More so than the Constitution…the Declaration has also become a global document, a piece of intellectual and political common property that has transcended the circumstances of its creation and perhaps even the intentions of its authors. Surprisingly, this afterlife has not received systematic and ‘global’ treatment by historians, and David Armitage is to be congratulated on his concise and well-written study of the Declaration as, to use his own words, ‘an event, a document, and the beginning of a genre.’ He shows that it was first and foremost an ‘international’ document, driven by the need to establish the legitimacy of the united colonies within the state-system and thus their right to conclude alliances against Britain.

• Introduction 1. The World in the Declaration of Independence 2. The Declaration of Independence in the World 3. A World of Declarations Conclusion Notes Acknowledgments Index